About the surprizing GDP growth of 4.3%

[edhopper]

The Economy still sucks under Trump, and they are doing everything they can to destroy it.

The devil is in the details. From the N Y Times:

Much of the growth in the third quarter came from military spending. Total corporate profits rose by $166 billion in the third quarter, compared with an increase of $6.8 billion in the previous quarter, a sharp improvement. But business investment, which has been fueled by the build-out of A.I. systems, notably cooled.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/business/us-economy-consumer-spending.html

Spending money on ICE an blowing up fishermen is not going to save the Economy.

[UpInArms]

1. Buying death

That should work

[NCDem47]

6. See Russia.

[edhopper]

7. Yes

a big factor in the USSR fall.

[NCDem47]

8. Do current events in the U.S. feel familar?

Four common factors in the decline of empires are:

1. economic problems (inflation, overspending--Excessive military budgets or luxury spending drained state coffers);
2. political instability (corruption, weak leadership, overexpansion);
3. social/cultural issues (class conflict, loss of unity, public health);
4. and external pressures (invasions, barbarian migrations) or environmental strains,

often combining to weaken the state from within and without, making it vulnerable to collapse.

[edhopper]

9. #2 in particular

a government this corrupt always leads to economic failure.

[Jack Valentino]

2. I've also recently read that a lot of the 'growth' could be based upon AI infrastructure spending

(the cost of installing "data centers", which are less beneficial to the economy
as a whole than other GDP growth)


I've also recently read that the published GDB growth figure is "full of shit"!

Even if the figure is factually correct, does the average guy and gal 'feel it'?
Gallup and other polls answer in a resounding "NO!"

[Prairie Gates]

3. Defense spending is a socialist escape valve for the failing capitalist economy

A giant engine of waste that can masquerade as a market.

That it also serves as an obvious corruption engine and has been designed to funnel money to favored constituencies and supporters is only icing on the cake for the MAGAs.

[markodochartaigh]

4. I read that health care spending was a big factor in the jump.

I guess that first savings go, then debt goes up, then liquidation of assets, all to increase gdp. I wonder how much more blood they can squeeze from the American working class turnip.


https://www.connectmoney.com/evening-brief/q3-u-s-gdp-surges-to-4-3-driven-by-healthcare-spending-and-resilient-consumers-evening-brief-12-23-25/

[WmChris]

5. No value

I nolonger trust any statistics generated by this orange tinted regime. All the honest people seem to have been purged and replaced with sycophants.

[Demsrule86]

10. The books are cooked no way there is growth with all the job losses. NY Times should be ashamed of themselves,